Halloween Remake Has No Story or Director, Is It in Trouble?

When it was announced this past May that John Carpenter, director of the original 1978 Halloween, was returning to executive produce Halloween Returns for Blumhouse, fans were very excited. As it turns out, all those cheers may have been for nothing. As it stands, it sounds like the third coming of Halloween isn't coming anytime soon. But that doesn't necessarily mean this reboot of the horror franchise is in serious trouble.

Earlier this year, fans of the Halloween movie series were surprised and shocked to learn that longtime rights holders Dimension Films and The Weinstein Company had lost serial slasher Michael Myers, a trademark they'd managed to hold onto for decades. The movie series was turned over to Blumhouse, Miramax and Trancas International Films. Together, these genre banners had decided to team on a Mike Myers revival.

It was reported early on that Mike Flanagan was wanted as a director. He is known for such low budget, big box office hits as Oculus and Hush, and he's the mastermind behind the truly terrifying and sort of strange Ouija 2, which is taking that horror series in a new, very welcome direction. Adam Wingard, who directed this September's Blair Witch reboot and is helming the American live-action version for Death Note, also publicly campaigned for the role of director on Halloween Returns. Alas, neither director ended up taking the job.

Producer Jason Blum recently spoke with CinemaBlend, and offered an update on the new Halloween movie. And he explains that the movie has taken a huge step backwards. It's no where near ready. He explains this.

"We haven't landed on a filmmaker, and we haven't landed on an approach. We thought we had a filmmaker and an approach, and we don't. We're talking to a handful of people about it, all of them have different ideas. I don't believe in coming up with an idea and telling a filmmaker what to do. So we have three to five different people we're talking with, and all of them have a different idea about what it should be. And we haven't landed on a group, and as a result we haven't landed on an idea."

This doesn't mean it's dead in the water. But whatever Halloween turns out to be next, no one seems to know. The original tracked psycho killer Michael Myers as he returns to his hometown to wreck havoc and kill his sister. Jamie Lee Curtis earned her crown as a scream queen starring in the movie, and the world was introduced to The Shape, a horror icon that has withstood 38 years of fandom. There have been plenty of Halloween sequels over the years, and in 2007, Rob Zombie remade the original, then went onto direct a sequel in 2009. That is the last we saw of Michael Myers on the big screen.

As far as we know, the tentative title is still Halloween Returns, which hints that this won't be another origin story for Mike Myers. But what will it be? When it was announced that John Carpenter was coming back he declared that he was going to 'try to make the 10th sequel the scariest of them all." But apparently the horror maestro is relying on a creative team to help bring that statement to fruition.

While it has not been confirmed at this time, it is expected that John Carpenter will return to score the movie, giving this next reboot a soundscape similar to the original. Halloween Returns doesn't have a release date at this time. But if everything starts to move in the right direction, it's possible that we could see it in theaters for Halloween 2017. But don't hold your breath.